On Tuesday, a court listened to arguments requesting capital punishment for ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol, with prosecutors charging the deposed leader with staging a rebellion via his contentious December 2024 martial law proclamation.

Independent counsel Cho Eun-suk petitioned the Seoul Central District Court to hand down the death sentence, contending that Yoon’s conduct constituted “anti-state activities” and characterizing the order as a “self-coup.”

Yoon, a conservative leader ousted last spring, stays in detention as he confronts several criminal cases linked to the martial law incident and other scandals from his term. Prosecutors note that the rebellion accusation bears the harshest possible penalty.

Cho’s legal team asserted in court that Yoon attempted to extend his grip on authority by subverting South Korea’s constitutional governance framework.

Yoon has dismissed the charges, informing the court that the probes into his actions have been “hysterical” and tainted by “manipulation” and “distortion.”

He has insisted that the martial law declaration aimed to warn citizens about what he perceived as an escalating danger from the opposition Democratic Party, which utilized its parliamentary majority to obstruct his .

Yoon contended that utilizing presidential emergency authorities should not be considered rebellion according to legal statutes.

The court is anticipated to issue a ruling next month. Legal analysts have indicated that life imprisonment appears more probable than execution, pointing out that South Korea hasn’t implemented a death sentence since 1997.

Yoon is the first former president to confront a possible death sentence since Chun Doo-hwan received a capital punishment verdict in 1996 for multiple offenses. Chun’s sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment, after which he was pardoned and released.